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Gladstone Gander
Gladstone redirects here. For the publishing company named after this character, see Gladstone Publishing. |designer=Carl Barks |personality=Egocentric, lazy, lucky, boastful, insufferable |alignment= Neutral |goal= To date Daisy Duck and ruin his cousin Donald's life |home=Duckburg |family= |friends=Daisy Duck, Gyro Gearloose |minions= |enemies=Donald Duck, Magica De Spell, Pete, Beagle Boys, Merlock |likes=Being lucky, Daisy Duck |dislikes=When his luck fails to help him out |powers=His uncanny luck |weapons= His cane |quote="I think, the reason for living is when... Whoa! What do you know! I just found a nickel!"}}Gladstone Gander is a character created by Carl Barks who made his debut in the Donald Duck comic Wintertime Wager ''in ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #88 (first published in January 1948). He is a lazy and extremely lucky goose who never fails to upset his first cousin and arch-nemesis, Donald Duck. Background Gladstone's luck defies probability and provides him with anything he desires, with hardly the need of effort. As Disney comics writer and artist Don Rosa has commented on the character: For all his ridiculous amount luck Gladstone has no achievements to be proud of, is very lazy, and has no true ambitions or calling in life, as he is incapable of long-term planning. All of this is in stark contrast to his relative Scrooge McDuck, who is also capable of taking advantage of opportunities but works hard to create situations favorable for him, is strongly motivated by his ambitions and takes huge pride in forming his fortune by his own efforts. He is a rival of Donald for the love of Donald's girlfriend Daisy Duck. Gladstone is also considered among the prime candidates for becoming Scrooge McDuck's successor. For all of these reasons, he and Donald have formed an intense rivalry with each other. Gladstone's arrogance and outrageous luck, combined with Donald's own ego and belief he can still best him despite all odds have set the stage for many stories featuring the two cousins' confrontations. His exact place on Donald's family tree is somewhat uncertain. In the Duck family tree Carl Barks created for personal use sometime in the the 1950s, Gladstone was the son of Luke the Goose and Daphne Duck, who died from overeating at a free-lunch picnic. He was later adopted by Scrooge McDuck sister Matilda McDuck and Goosetave Gander. When Barks made his 1990s Duck family tree, he didn't use the adoption story, which was never featured in any story (even though no stories denying the event were published either). In a more recent version of the family tree created by Don Rosa, Daphne Duck (Donald's paternal aunt) married Goosetave Gander and the two were Gladstone's parents. As well as Barks earlier family trees, this is consistent with what Gladstone says in Race to the South Seas: "Scrooge McDuck is my mother's brother's brother-in-law". In ''The Sign of the Triple Distelfink'' (first published on February 4, 1997), Don Rosa added that Gladstone was born on Daphne's birthday, who was born under the protection sign of the Triple Distelfink, thus inheriting his mother's luck. A Dutch issue of the Donald Duck magazine which had a feature called "Van het plak boek van Guus Geluk" (From the scrap book of Gladstone Gander) showed a young Gladstone with his parents. His arrogant stance already in place with both his mother and father fuming in anger, suggesting he was VERY spoiled when growing up. History Barks gradually developed Gladstone's personality and at first used him frequently—in 24 stories between 1948 and 1953, the first five years of his existence. Gladstone's luck evolved slowly. In his first three appearances in 1948 (Wintertime Wager, Gladstone Returns, Links Hijinks), he was portrayed as the mirror image of Donald: an obstinate braggart, perhaps just a little bit more arrogant. In his next two appearances, Rival Beachcombers and The Goldilocks Gambit, Gladstone is portrayed as merely lazy and irritable, and also gullible. The breakthrough of his lucky streak occurs in December 1949, and the long adventure story'' Luck of the North''. His and Donald's rivalry over Daisy is established in Donald's Love Letters (1949), Wild About Flowers (1950), and Knightly Rivals (1951), and as potential heirs to Scrooge's fortune in Some Heir Over the Rainbow (1953). After that, Barks felt unable to develop the character further, finding him basically unsympathetic, and began using him less frequently. But by then, Gladstone had already found a steady place in the Donald Duck character cast. His first appearance by a Disney comic artist other than Barks was in 1951's Presents For All, by Del Connell and Bob Moore. Appearances ''DuckTales Outside of comics, Gladstone appeared in several episodes of ''DuckTales, where he was voiced by Rob Paulsen and is seemingly more sympathetic than he is in the original comics. In the episode "Dime Enough for Luck", Gladstone is an unwitting stooge for Magica De Spell in one of her attempts to steal Scrooge's Number One Dime. He returns in the episode "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. McDuck", where he accidentally bids on an item that turns out to be valuable. This inspires Scrooge to bid on the next item—a trunk containing Dr. Jekyll's formula—which sets the plot in motion. He also makes non-speaking cameo appearances in the episodes "Sweet Duck of Youth" and "Till Nephews Do Us Part". ''DuckTales'' (2017 series) Gladstone is set to appear in the upcoming reboot series. Like most of his previous appearances, he is supernaturally lucky and every bit as lazy and arrogant. Because of his habit of receiving everything while doing nothing, Gladstone is viewed as a "common enemy" for Donald and Scrooge. His design has also been given a more modern update. Other appearances Gladstone made a cameo appearance in the House of Mouse episode "Goofy for a Day", in the Penguin Waiters advertisement. Video games Gladstone also appears in the video game Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers! in his traditional role as Donald's rival for Daisy's affections, in this, they both compete to rescue Daisy from Merlock. In this game, he was voiced by Corey Burton. Trivia *Although he didn't appear in Mickey Mouse Works, his name was mentioned on a punch card in "Donald's Rocket Ruckus". Gallery Gladstone.jpg|Gladstone in Carl Barks' Race to the South Seas, one of Gladstone's earliest appearances. Hr-Gontran_Bonheur_et_Donald_Duck.jpg Gladstone Gander01.jpg Gladstone Gander02.jpg -scrooge-gladstone.jpg Glad_06.png Glad_D.png|Daisy with Gladstone in the 2011 DuckTales comic book. Glad18.png 640px-Cinnamon_1.jpg|Gladstone hypnotized by Cinnamon Teal. gladstone01.jpg Gladstone02.jpg Gladstone03.jpg Gladstone04.jpg|Gladstone with Magica De Spell Gladstone05.jpg Gladstone06.jpg Gladstone07.jpg Scrooge-Gladstone.jpg Scrooge-Magica-Gladstone.jpg 2001-tousenboiteS2-P2.jpg Tumblr mxie9aSYpV1qcf65wo4 1280.jpg Tumblr n7plmtqmos1r3jmn6o1 1280.png Plakboekguusgeluk1.png|Young Gladstone and his parents in the Dutch illustration Uit het Plakboek van Guus Geluk ("From the Scrapbook of Gladstone Gander"). The caption translates into "My parents were the luckiest ones of all because, come on, they had ME" gladstonefamily.jpg|Gladstone with his nephew and his two female cousins. Gladstone Gander model.jpg DonaldDuck_issue_369_Disneyland_variant.png|Gladstone steals the spotlight on James Silvani's Disneyland 60th anniversary variant cover for Donald Duck #2 369. Gladstone_Topolino.png|Gladstone's appearance in Topolino. DT2017 - Gladstone Gander.jpg External links *Disney's HooZoo - Gladstone Gander References Category:Characters Category:Donald Duck universe characters Category:Anti-heroes Category:Disney characters Category:Characters introduced in comics Category:Characters created by Carl Barks Category:Males Category:DuckTales characters Category:Characters in video games Category:House of Mouse characters Category:Characters Under Spells Category:Adults Category:Antagonists related to protagonists Category:Duck Family Category:Geese Category:Lovers Category:Ducks Category:Animated characters Category:Neutral Characters Category:TV Animation Characters Category:The Disney Afternoon characters Category:Mickey Mouse universe characters Category:Comic characters Category:American characters Category:Athletes Category:Anthropomorphic characters Category:Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers! characters